Nata and the Salt Pans

 A beautiful, huge baobab tree and our truck at a side of the road pee stop.

 The suburbs of Nata.

 A grey lourie.

 The Nata Lodge.

A herd of zebra on the salt pans.

 Wildebeest on the salt pans.

A wild cucumber cactus.

A greater flamingo.

Sunset over the lake at the pans.

Thursday, October 12^th.

After breakfast today we packed up early as usual and set off on a 6 hour drive to Nata. We drove along the highway which was full of potholes that were so bad people in sections were driving off road to get around them. The scenery was all bushveld, just scrub land and very flat. We drove through a national park and saw some zebra, a couple of ostrich, an oryx and a couple of springbok.

Just after the park we stopped for a rest stop right beside a huge baobab tree. I had seen a couple in the bush but it was great to stop and see one. The Intrepid tour doesn't stop at the campground that the Gap trip did where we camped among a number of the trees.

An hour after that we arrived at the town of Nata and the Nata Lodge. This is quite a nice place. We arrived in the heat of the day and had to set up camp. Then we gathered around the lodge for lunch in their restaurant. The service was really slow and it took the an hour and a half to feed twenty-two people. After lunch most of us hung around the pool and either immersed ourselves of dangled our feet to cool off.

At 4:30 we went for a game drive on the Nata Salt Pans. We were loaded up into three four by four jeep vehicles and off we went. I was expecting a flat expanse of white salt like I've seen in Chobe National Park or Bolivia but instead it was a huge area of flat scrub grassland with a few patches of dusty crusty salt. As we drove we saw a number of birds and then a few zebra and wildebeest. There wasn't really too much to see, but the main thing was to drive to the large brine lake where we saw a few flamingos and pelicans. Then they provided us with a beer and we sat and watched the sunset, which was quite pretty.

Then we drove back and the crew made us another steak dinner. I went to my tent to pack a couple of things, laid down and the next thing I knew was Timon was calling me from outside my tent. Enock had saved some food for me before the rest could have seconds.

Then I typed this off and headed off to bed.

I don't know why but I can upload the blog here but I can't check my e-mails...